The Verdict:
The band's first of two shows in Charleston reminds me quite a bit of one of my favorite shows, the 10/17/14 show in Eugene, Oregon. Both are extremely strong fall tour openers that don't get as much love as they deserve (seemingly) simply because they don't have a major jam that's easy to point to.
The opening frame here combines strong "Type 1.5" jamming that's been the hallmark of notable '15-'16 first sets ("Ghost," "Gin") with solid debuts of a number of Big Boat tunes ("Petrichor," "Home," "More"), and that's enough for me. Sprinkle a few oldies-but-goodies in there and you've got a set that sets the tone of the new tunes playing nice with the old.
The "No Men" that opens the second set doesn't go deep, but it's likely the most satisfying straightforward version the band has played yet. Lest your concern over song length limit your enjoyment of it, don't worry: it's followed by an evil, murky "Disease" jam that recalls the Bend "Simple" from '15 before segueing beautifully into "Cities." This "Cities" is a slowed-down funk vamp that slides nicely into a "Roggae" made unique by Fishman's drumming, which drags the rest of the band to some places they don't normally go in this tune.
"Twenty Years Later" is a brief, by-the-book interlude before "Light" hits. Despite its twelve-minute length, this "Light" has a few distinct parts: first, a murky bit that recalls the earlier "Disease" jam, then a "Manteca"-style groove, and, finally, a hilariously catchy "Fire On the Mountain"-style jam.
If that's not enough to get you excited about this show, "Hood" continues in the tradition of strong (though straightforward) high-energy "Hood"s, and there's a three-song encore in which "Winterqueen" goes to some interesting places, "Tube" features a rock and roll jam instead of the almost-always-typical funk jam, and "Rocky Top" brings us home.
Whew!
The Live Review:
10/14/16: Petrichor opener. That's exciting.
10/14/16: Only heard this on Big Boat and Trey w/ symphony in Portland.
10/14/16: I'm hoping that hearing Petrichor a bunch of times live will help me better appreciate it on the album.
10/14/16: And get over my Mercury angst.
10/14/16: Extended outro jam (Type I) for Petrichor.
10/14/16: Outro jam similar to what they do with Divided sky.
10/14/16: Crowd is super stoked after Petrichor.
10/14/16: First-set Ghost next.
10/14/16: Not sure how I feel about this new trend. Ghost has been good in opening sets this year, but I miss my S2 versions...
10/14/16: ...of course, how long has it been since a S2 version went 20-25 minutes anyway? A long time. Albany '09?
10/14/16: Yup, Albany.
10/14/16: This version is a nice, mellow Type I jam so far.
10/14/16: Nice, propulsive, muddy funk-rock before a return to the Ghost riff ends the song.
10/14/16: That moment when Trey's tone means it'll either be Maze or Heavy Things...and then it's Heavy Things.
10/14/16: More boisterous-than-usual Heavy Things jam gets the crowd cheering.
10/14/16: Home! Love this tune.
10/14/16: Swear there are harmonies on the album that are missing here, though.
10/14/16: Sounds a little barer.
10/14/16: Extended jam out of Home. Almost sounded like a composed-type outro jam that's not on the studio version.
10/14/16: That was neat.
10/14/16: Poor Heart. Loving the mix of new and old material so far.
10/14/16: Trey is tearing into this Gin. No deep dive like a lot of S1 versions lately, but still solid.
10/14/16: Oops, might prove me wrong. Building now.
10/14/16: 555 next.
10/14/16: Horn.
10/14/16: Man, Trey's been biffing the Horn solo a lot lately. I mean, I can't play it at all, so I shouldn't complain. But it's a bummer.
10/14/16: I think More might be my favorite song Phish has written since 2004. 10/14/16: More ends the set. Set 2 starts with No Men's.
10/14/16: Nice, loose take on No Men's so far.
10/14/16: Hot, Type I jam for No Men's. Guitar loops at the end lead into Disease.
10/14/16: Really nasty guitar tone from Trey driving Disease jam into space...maybe...
10/14/16: Echoplex-driven 'Woo!' jam leads into some dark, murky territory.
10/14/16: Really digging this evil jam.
10/14/16: Reminds me a little of the Bend Simple.
10/14/16: Not particularly complex, but really good nonetheless.
10/14/16: -> Cities!
10/14/16: Great segue. Slow, gooey Cities coming yer way.
10/14/16: Two of my few remaining live Phish wishes are a gigantic Piper jam and a long, languid funky Cities taken in from an amp lawn.
10/14/16: I'm talking like 15 minutes with little to no variation, just FUNK POWER
10/14/16: Basically I want them to play the Slip, Stitch, and Pass version again.
10/14/16: Mike's bass tone is great right now.
10/14/16: Building in intensity. This is great.
10/14/16: Percussion jam. Trey on marimba.
10/14/16: Pretty fade into Roggae.
10/14/16: Fish mixes up the beat going into the Roggae jam and it's pushing the song in a slightly different direction than the usual.
10/14/16: Really neat take on Roggae. Next is a rare standalone 20 Years Later.
10/14/16: Twenty Years rolls to a slow-down stop. > Light.
10/14/16: Light seems sort of slow and more atmospheric than rock and roll.
10/14/16: Neat, gooey, muddy Light jam...that somehow finds its way back to the ol' Manteca progression anyway.
10/14/16: Trey soloing with the pitch-shifter over the Manteca beat.
10/14/16: Trey set up a great -> Free there, but then flew right past it.
10/14/16: Hey, to you guys who always hear 'Fire On the Mountain' teases...
10/14/16: I would suggest checking out this Light.
10/14/16: Ha! Five minutes later, > Free.
10/14/16: Pretty standard Free > Boogie On.
10/14/16: > Hood!
10/14/16: Trey starting off the Hood jam with some harmonics.
10/14/16: Particularly nice 'soft' part there before the build begins.
10/14/16: Wow, another great, straightforward Hood.
10/14/16: 3.0 Hoods could feel a little perfunctory before the renaissance of '14...but now that they're back to not being exploratory...
10/14/16: ...they have a verve to them that they didn't have before '14. In this era at least. Mostly.
10/14/16: I still love me the Gorge '09 Hood.
10/14/16: Long, expansive, HUGE feedback ending echoing out over the Columbia River. Good times.
10/14/16: Oh. Umm...I guess the set's still going?
10/14/16: Oh, nevermind. End set. Winterqueen encore?
10/14/16: Winterqueen approached a Roggae-style jam there for a few minutes.
10/14/16: Tube!!!
10/14/16: Alert: Tube is getting jammed not as a funk jam but as a rock attack. Mike losing it.
10/14/16: This is in the encore, folks.
10/14/16: > Rocky Top.
10/14/16: Great show. Reminded me a bit of the fall '14 opener in Eugene. Not just because of the three-song encore and Rocky Top.
10/14/16: Strong start to S1, and though things got a little rickety later, it was nice to hear all the new songs.
10/14/16: S2 had no major jam, but everything up through Light was great. Disease and Light were top-tier jams.
10/14/16: Strong finish for Hood and the encore.
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